nager

Forms

nager^[1] Old French nagier; the form nager is found from about 1160.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French nagier, inherited from Latin nāvigō (“to sail, voyage by sea”), from nāvis (“ship”).^[4][5][6][2] Wiktionary calls it a reduced form of the Latin verb;^[1][7] Littré, noting that a form like Old Occitan naveiar would be expected, accepts it because the first sense was “to sail”.^[1][7] Its doublet naviguer was borrowed later from Latin, when the new sense “to swim” had made the old one hard to use.^[4][6][8]

In the sense “to swim” it gradually displaced Old French noer, from Late Latin *notō, a dissimilated form of natō (“to swim”).^[4][6][8] Wartburg put the loss of the verb for swimming down to its clash with the Old French verb for “to knot”, from Latin nōdō, the ancestor of nouer;^[4][6][8] Rey adds that its likeness to noyer may have counted too.^[6]

Cognate with Italian navigare, Spanish navegar and Old Occitan navejar.^[8] Littré gives Picard nanger.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1100 in the Chanson de Roland, meaning “to row”: Siglent a fort e nagent e guvernent “they sail hard, and row and steer”.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant “to row” and “to sail” (about 1140), and also, transitively, “to carry someone by boat” (about 1150).^[4][6] At the end of the 12th century Béroul's Tristan has it in the modern sense “to move through water”, in a proverb about the man who swims easily when held up by the chin.^[4][6] Bloch and Wartburg say the old sense held until the end of the 15th century; sailors still use nager for “to row”.^[8][6][9]

Several phrases go back to the old sense: nager entre deux eaux “to avoid taking sides” (before 1370) and nager en plus grande eau “to be well placed” (1588), both now understood through the modern one.^[4][6] From the 16th century the verb is used of things floating (1530) and of being steeped in a liquid (1552), extended to people in nager dans son sang (1671).^[4][6] Richelet's son pié nage en son vieux soulié (1680) gave the sense “to be lost in one's clothes”.^[4][6] In popular French savoir nager meant “to know how to manage” (1914) and nager “to be at a loss” (1916).^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Nagier “to row” in the Chanson de Roland.^[4]
• c. 1140 – Geoffrey Gaimar uses it for “to sail”.^[4]
• late 12th century – Béroul uses it for swimming.^[4]
• before 1370 – Jean le Bel has nager entre deux eaux.^[4][6]
• 1530 – Used of things floating on a liquid.^[4][6]
• 1555 – The derivative nageoire “fin” is recorded.^[8]
• 1671 – Pomey has nager dans son sang.^[4][6]
• 1680 – Richelet records the sense “to be lost in one's clothes”.^[4]
• 1916 – Popular use for “to be at a loss”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To swim;^[9][10][1] nager comme un poisson, to swim very well.^[9][10][1]
2. (transitive) To swim (a stroke or a race).^[9]
3. (intransitive, nautical) To row.^[9][6]
4. (intransitive) To float, or to be steeped in a liquid.^[9][4]
5. (intransitive) To be lost in clothes that are too big: il nage dans ce manteau.^[4][6]
6. (intransitive, familiar) To be at a loss, flounder.^[4]
7. Nager entre deux eaux: to play both sides, avoid committing oneself.^[9][6]
8. Savoir nager: to know how to get by.^[4]

Word family

• nage
• nageoire
• nageur
• surnager
• nagée

Related words

• naviguer
• natation
• Latin nāvigō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 61b
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)